kirchara

Historical Fiction and Nonfiction

2024-03-05T05:15:35Z

Here is a list of historical fiction and nonfiction books that M read and enjoyed in third grade and fourth grade:
(The list is chronological by time setting)

1. Sees Behind Trees (Powhatan, 16th century America/post-Columbus)
2. The Kidnapped Prince: The Life of Olaudah Equiano (18th century, nonfiction, based on Olaudah Equiano's 1789 autobiography)
3. I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, a Freed Girl (1865, post-Civil War)
4. Sugar by Jewell Parker Rhodes (1870s, sugar plantation, Chinese laborers, Louisiana)
5. Hidden Figures (1930s to 1960s, nonfiction, Black women in NASA)
6. They Called Us Enemy (1940s, graphic novel autobiography, Japanese American internment camps)
7. Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes (1950s, post-Hiroshima, short nonfiction, based on the life of Sadako Sasaki)
8. The Watsons Go to Birmingham (1963, Civil Rights movement, 16th Street Baptist Church bombing)
9. Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom (1965, short nonfiction, Selma Voting Rights march)

Promising, not read yet: Troublemaker by John Cho (1992, L.A. Riots)

Seven of the above nine books we read as part of the Oh Freedom US history curriculum.

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Learning Mandarin with 蓝天生活华语 (Living Mandarin)

2022-11-12T10:56:20Z

Living Mandarin is a curriculum expressly written for non-native Chinese speakers. The textbooks use both traditional and simplified characters. The curriculum is not text-heavy, so you would need to add at least one set of leveled readers to teach your child.

The textbooks have traditional characters, simplified characters above the traditional characters (as needed), pinyin under the Chinese characters, and zhuyin to the right of the traditional characters. Traditional characters and zhuyin are black, simplified characters are gray, and pinyin are red. In addition to zhuyin to the right, they also included an older form of romanization underneath pinyin (as needed) in green. I bought levels 3 (my kids' approximate level) to 10.

The text is written horizontally from left to right, beginning from kindergarten levels all the way to level 10. The horizontal orientation is great because most Chinese reading pens only scan horizontally.

The sets I bought did not come with music CDs* or an e-Pen. When you purchase directly from their website, the sets come with CDs. If you can read Chinese and are teaching your children yourself, the CDs and e-Pen are probably not necessary.

* not good music

Living Mandarin sets so far goes up to Level 10 instead of 12:

- Teaching bopomofo (1 textbook + 1 workbook)
- Kindergarten levels 1 to 3 (1 textbook + 1 workbook per level)
- Levels 1 to 10 (1 textbook + 2 workbooks per level)

According to their website, ( Read more... )

You can look at some of the inside pages here:

- My Instagram post
- Issuu pages on their website. Click on each book and click on the "試看試聽" (Take a look/give a listen) tab.

( Pros and Cons of this curriculum )

I am pleased to find that level 3 is the correct level for my kids. I cover the pinyin with a reading ruler when they read and only uncover it when they do not know the character(s). My kids seem to automatically read the simplified characters and do not find the zhuyin distracting. My older one quickly figured out that zhuyin includes tones.

We have been doing Mandarin regularly since summer break. I am hoping this schedule will continue for a while, before things get hectic again. We rotate between Odonata (currently reviewing Book 4.4), SageBooks (reviewing Book 3.4) and XQKD (Book 3 Lesson 3). Sometimes we sing/learn a Chinese song or do a game/activity in Chinese instead.

We go over each textbook lesson in two sessions, and both workbooks in two sessions. For now, I plan on skipping up to half of the writing exercises to cut for time.

My tentative lesson map: ( Read more... )

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Using 学前快读600字 Book 3 and Sagebooks together

2022-08-29T09:08:05Z

The new characters in Xue Qian Kuai Du Book Two beyond Sagebooks Level 3.2: ( New characters beyond Sage Level 3.2 )

In total, there are 67 characters in XQKD Book Two that are not covered by Sagebooks 500.

You might want to finish Sagebooks 3.3 or 3.4 first before you start using XQKD Book 3.

My kids are halfway through Sagebooks 3.3, and they're starting the first lesson of XQKD Book 3.

Learning Plan: ( Read more... )

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Using 学前快读600字 Book 2 and Sagebooks together

2021-01-06T12:38:59Z

The new characters in Xue Qian Kuai Du Book Two beyond Sagebooks Level 2.1 : ( New characters beyond Sage Level 2.1 )

In total, there are 48 characters in XQKD Book Two that are not covered by Sagebooks 500.

You might want to finish Sagebooks 2.3 or 2.4 first before you start using XQKD Book 2. My kids are currently halfway through Sagebooks 2.2, and they're on the last lesson of XQKD Book 1.

Learning Plan: ( Read more... )

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Additional storybooks for Odonata Leveled Readers (幼儿首100字 etc.)

2020-11-29T01:45:50Z

Now that we're done with Odonata 1st-Hundred Words*, we're starting to read additional Odonata story books that we own. I only purchased the storybooks that has pleasing illustrations and/or interesting subject matter.

* We don't do Odonata as often as Sagebooks because it teaches so many characters at once.

After Odonata 1st-Hundred Words: ( Storybooks after 1st-Hundred Words )

After Odonata 3rd to 4th Hundred Words: ( Storybooks after 3rd to 4th Hundred Words )

The Interactive Storybooks have speech bubbles and thought bubbles that your kids can take turns reading.
The bottom part of the books has a 妈妈讲故事 section where the parent can narrate what's happening and prompt the child to read the speech bubbles on the main part of the page. So far I only read the narration when my kids pause on certain pages (because their interest is piqued, etc.)

You can also skip the parent narration entirely and the stories will still make sense.

~~~

Additional Storybooks by the same publisher: ( More storybook titles )

The kids' reading log: ( Read more... )

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学前快读600字: Recommended Addition to Sagebooks

2020-10-29T10:47:23Z

Xue Qian Kuai Du teaches children to recognize characters by reading a set of leveled literary readers. It's similar to Odonata in that they introduce several new characters at once. Compared to other leveled readers that I've seen, XQKD is superior in that it's more literary (the text often feels rhythmic and lyrical). XQKD also includes poems, nursery rhymes and riddles.

Xue Qian Kuai Du: Revised Edition* comes with:

- four textbooks (totaling 45 stories)
- one I-can-read-by-myself reader (12 short stories)
- four exercise books

- 600 character flashcards (thin and one-sided)
- two wheels of character radical games
- a game instruction booklet
- two list booklets (radicals, antonyms, idioms etc.), and
- some stickers.

There's a QR code that you can scan for audio of the 45 stories. The speakers have a Beijing accent; the background music is soothing.

( The textbooks include some 'How this character came to be' pages )

If you cannot read Chinese, I wouldn't recommend this as your first/only curriculum because it has no pinyin.

For those doing Sagebooks, this set would make a beautiful addition/supplement to the Sagebooks curriculum. I bought my set for $35 from JD.com (including shipping to the US; you probably can get a better deal during the November 11th sale).

If your child has learned 100 Sagebooks characters, they should be able to pretty easily read Stories 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3.

How we have been doing XQKD so far: ( Read more... )

Here is the progression of new characters in Book One: ( 122 characters in 9 stories )

For Sagebooks parents, here are the new characters in XQKD Book One: ( New characters beyond Sage Level 1 )

In total, there are 14 characters in XQKD Book One that are not covered by Sagebooks 500.

* The old edition of 学前快读600字 does not include many of these extras. Many of the stories in the textbooks are also different. Here's a comparison of the revised and old editions (The review is readable using Google translate).

List of the story titles in the four books: ( 学前快读600字（修订版） )

You can look at some of the inside pages here:

- My Instagram post
- A Sohu.com review comparing the revised and old editions. The revised edition is the book/page on the left, the old edition is on the right.
- A Zhuanlan Zhihu review comparing Xie Qian Kuai Du: Revised edition with Si Wu Kuai Du. The reviewer prefers XQKD, but SWKD has an easier/lower starting point.

Summary of important purchasing information:

- Product name in Chinese: 《学前快读600字（修订版）》(XQKD 600: revised edition) or 礼盒版：学前快读600字 (Gift box edition: XQKD 600)
- Where to buy: Product listing at JD.com. You will know right away what your shipping fee will be. The product weighs 2.68 kg, according to JD.com.
- How to Buy Simplified Chinese Books from JD
- You can also buy XQKD at taobao, but you will need to do your own research on which store/seller is reliable etc. and pay for expensive shipping.

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Sagebooks Treasure Box reading log

2020-09-08T07:12:30Z

Sagebooks Treasure Box allows your children to be able to read every single character in the book except 1-6 new characters that they list at the end of each book. The value of this set is in giving them the sense of accomplishment of "I read an entire story book all by myself."

FYI The Treasure Box books are the exact same width and length as the Sagebooks Basic Chinese 500 books. The Treasure Box paper is more regular (thicker than regular paper) and not smooth and shiny like Basic Chinese 500.

Book Titles: ( Sagebooks Treasure Box book titles )

What we usually do:
1) Listen to the audio CD while looking at the book.
2) Listen and repeat after the audio CD while looking at the book.
3) The kids alternate reading each page. e.g. Brooks reads evens and River reads odds.
4) The kids alternate reading each page, switching the order of odds and evens.
5) The kids read the entire book on their own.

The kids' reading log: ( Read more... )

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How to Get Your Kids to Love Shakespeare, from as young as age seven

2020-08-19T14:34:43Z

You can teach your kids Shakespeare from as young as seven. Brooks was 5.5 years old when he had these lines memorized, just because he’s heard River repeat it so often:

Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand,
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover’s fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!

Here is what River (then 8 y.o.) wrote about A Midsummer Night's Dream:

Oberon, who is furious at Titania, wants the Indian boy to work for him as a squire. Titania replies, "No, this is the son of a beloved friend." Oberon angrily takes revenge by making Titania fall in love with the first thing she sees, a man with a donkey's head. Puck mistakenly puts the flower's juice on the wrong person's eyes. Instead of making Demetrius fall in love with Helena, he ends up making Lysander fall in love with Helena. Since Titania is in love with Nick Bottom and isn't thinking right, Oberon successfully takes away the Indian boy. After he has the boy, Oberon reverses the enchantment on Titania.

I use three books to teach River Shakespeare:

1) Ken Ludwig’s How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare

2) Mary & Charles Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare (This book preserves Shakespeare's language. Don’t get any other Shakespeare “summaries” because it’s useless)

3) my college textbook The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Longman, ed. David Bevington).

Bonus: Gareth Hinds’ Romeo and Juliet graphic novel, which uses actual Shakespeare lines. (The wedding night scene is tame and truncated, FYI.) I personally love his recasting of Romeo and Juliet as other races to show that Shakespeare is universal.

Below is a timeline of River’s Shakespeare journey, from age seven to twelve:
( 7 to 12 years old )

More information about the contents of the books below:

1) How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig
The book website has free audio recordings of the 26 Shakespeare passages in the book.
Get a hardcover because you'll be using this book for years. The edges of the hardcover is intentionally ragged, FYI.

( List of plays and passages in HTTYCS )

2) Tales from Shakespeare by Mary and Charles Lamb
The comedies are rewritten by Mary, and the tragedies are rewritten by Charles.
Your library probably has a copy you can borrow. If you're buying a physical book, be careful to get a good quality one, because some versions are just poorly photocopied pages bound in a book.

( 14 comedies and 6 tragedies )

3) The Complete Works of Shakespeare
You need a college textbook. Don't just get a random compilation because you need lots of good and reliable footnotes. Earlier or later edition doesn't matter; mine is 4th edition (there are now 7 Longman editions). Renting a textbook isn't that cheap so you might as well buy a used, older edition textbook.
The pages of my Shakespeare book is as thin as Bible pages.

+) Gareth Hinds’ Shakespeare graphic novels. We've only read his Romeo and Juliet graphic novel so I don't know what his other Shakespeare graphic novels are like. Merchant of Venice looks promising though.
The paperback is very high quality and have nice thick covers so you don't need to get a hardcover version (unless you want to).
Hinds has also written & illustrated Macbeth, King Lear, The Odyssey, The Iliad, Beowulf and Poe: Stories and Poems.

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Learning Mandarin with Sagebooks Basic Chinese 500

2019-09-06T03:27:59Z

Our Sagebooks progress used to be super slow, because I was focusing on their pronunciation (reproducing consonants, vowels and tones correctly) instead of comprehension.* I would read to them and have them repeat after me phrase by phrase. They also traced the big characters in front of each Sagebooks chapter with their fingers (pre-writing).

Two years later, after four months of weekly Chinese lessons and near-daily Chinese reinforcement, we follow the Sagebooks suggestion of reading five chapters per session: four review chapters and one new chapter.

e.g. REVIEW the last four chapters in Book 1.1 (也、我、指、五) + LEARN the first chapter in Book 1.2 (两).

The CD has been essential for letting my kids hear native speakers' tone and pacing. My six-year-old rarely makes mistakes with tones, but he's pronouncing the character tones faithfully as if they are in isolation. I tell him that native speakers don't say "I-am-going-to-go-to-the-store," native speakers say "I'm gonna go to the store," and if he reads the tones exactly as they are written, he would sound like a robot.

有人/上山/来我的家.

Initially Brooks inserted pauses at the wrong places for this sentence. I played the CD for him and explained that the sentence is step by step: There's someone/ climbing up the mountain/ and coming to my home.

We've been doing Sagebooks almost everyday** ever since the entire set*** arrived. Brooks passed Book 1.1 assessment**** on July 16th (17/20 characters), and River passed on July 17th (16/20 characters).

~~~

* At 4.5 and 9 years old, their Chinese was near-zero. They would comprehend once they start taking actual Chinese lessons, was my thought at the time. Also, Sagebooks and BetterChinese have English translation right there in the books; I figured they can read it on their own if they're curious.

** We still occasionally read BetterChinese, especially during Chinese playgroups and as the subject comes up (e.g. They needed a refresher on "这是谁?"). Odonata is on hold for now; twelve to fourteen new characters at once is a bit too much. (We read Book 1.2 almost two months ago.)
ETA 10/18/19: We're slowly doing Odonata in addition to Sagebooks and Better Chinese; we're currently on Book 1.4.

*** Previously, we only had four random Sagebooks that my mom bought. Thankfully, one of the four books was book 1.1.

****For Book 1.1, their weekly Chinese lessons have covered eight out of twenty characters: 山、人、大、上、下、手、小、五.
Nine, if you include 一, which does not count toward the 500 character count of Sagebooks.
For Book 1.2, their lessons have covered eight out of twenty characters: 两、十、来、马、去、鸟、天、地.

My tentative lesson map: ( Read more... )

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Chinese Playgroup #3 🏡♥

2019-07-19T10:18:16Z

July 4th weekend (but we didn't do anything thematic)

Five kids again this week. This week's playgroup was a bit heavy on character recognition and writing, so the other six-year-old lost interest. (She hasn't had any formal Chinese instruction yet.)

1. SONGS:
1a. 我的朋友在哪里 (Where is My Friend?)
Show/remind them the ASL gestures for 我的 (My), 朋友 (Friend), 在哪里 (Where) and 在这里 (Here).
1b. 小白兔，白又白 (Little white bunny)

2. INTRODUCTION:
Introduce themselves by their Chinese name. Explain the meaning. "我叫NAME. 国王的王. 生日的生." etc. I modeled the introduction by writing my name on the whiteboard and explaining the characters' meaning. Brooks introduced himself: ( Read more... )

3. READ-ALOUD:
3a. Read 先有蛋 (xiān yǒu dàn)/先有鸡 (xiān yǒu jī). First the Egg/First the Chicken by Laura Vaccaro Seeger.
3b. Read 红花红花几月开？(When Will The Red Flower Bloom?) from MyFirstChineseWords (#16)
3c. River asked me to also read 你在做什么? (What Are You Doing?) (#25) because he finds the deformed illustrations hilarious.

4. SHOW AND TELL:
"这是OBJECT."
One or two additional sentence about the object's color/size/physical characteristics.
Ask follow-up questions as appropriate.

River shared 这是我的耳机. 我的耳机是红色的. This is my headphones. My headphones are red. ( Read more... )

5. ACTIVITY #1:
Guess which character I'm writing.
One child write on the whiteboard one stroke at a time, pausing in between strokes to give the other kids chance to guess the character.

We cut the playgroup short at 30 minutes because the kids were vibrating more than usual this week.

6. REFRESHMENTS:
Bing & Rainier cherries 樱桃 Trad. 櫻桃 (yīng táo) etc.labeled with their Chinese names.
My mom made a plate of 饺子 Trad. 餃子 (jiǎo zi), which immediately disappeared.
There were also some sunflower seeds 葵花子 (kuí huā zǐ)

There was another playgroup in-between at V's house, which for the purposes of this blog will be called #V1 and so on.

Plans for Playgroup #4: ( Plans for Playgroup #4 )

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Chinese To-Do List 📋🖋✔✘

2019-07-19T08:16:19Z

Prepared Environment:

[✔] ~~Print writing practice sheets: animals~~ DONE
[✔] ~~Print writing practice sheets: colors~~ First sheet DONE
[✔] ~~Rainbow colors~~ DONE
[✔] ~~Write color flashcards~~ DONE
[✔] ~~Print 春天的颜色 (2, 3 sheets) for puzzle and memorization~~ DONE
[] Look up lyrics for 两只老虎🐯

[✔] ~~Cut up wiki stix to appropriate length~~ DONE
[✔] ~~Write Chinese characters on rain and rainbow board~~ DONE

[] Choose family pictures
[] Print family pictures at Costco
[] Put together 我的家 book for Brooks

[✔] ~~Look up relevant NiF pictures~~
[✔] ~~NiF four seasons tie-in~~ DONE =D

Prepared Adult:

[✔] ~~Plan for this week's playgroup (#4)~~ mostly DONE
[✔] ~~Gather the read-aloud books for this week's playgroup (#4)~~ DONE
[✔] ~~Look up ASL gestures for 两只老虎🐯~~ DONE

[] Read/look up 蒙福
[] Look up simplified "Say Yes to Jesus" lyrics
[] Plan for next playgroup (#5)

[✔] ~~Write monthly plan (July/August)~~ DONE
[✔] ~~Write weekly plan: 7/28/19~~ DONE
[✔] ~~Write weekly plan: 8/4/19~~ DONE
[✔] ~~Write weekly plan: 8/11/19~~ DONE
[] Write weekly plan: 8/25/19

[] Finish compiling list of Sagebooks' 500 characters
[✔] ~~Type up plan/schedule for going over Sagebooks~~ DONE

Presentation and Activities: ( Read more... )

Blog/Instagram/Facebook: ( Read more... )

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Chinese Playgroup #2 🏡♥

2019-07-05T11:41:56Z

On the weekend of the Dragon Boat Festival.

Another six-year-old joined playgroup, so we have five kids total.

1. SONGS:
1a. 我的朋友在哪里 (Where is My Friend?)
Show/teach them the ASL gestures for 我的 (My), 朋友 (Friend), 在哪里 (Where) and 在这里 (Here).
1b. Teach them 小白兔，白又白 (Little white bunny)

2. INTRODUCTION:
Introduce their sibling instead of themselves.
"这是我的RELATION. 我的RELATION叫NAME. 我的RELATION AGE岁了."

I modeled the introduction by introducing V as 我的朋友. The kids did a round robin introduction.

3. SHOW AND TELL:
"这是OBJECT." One or two additional sentence about the object's color/size/physical characteristics. Ask follow-up questions as appropriate.

The kids brought interesting objects. River shared his sheep minifigure: "这是我的小羊。我的小羊是白色的。" A shared her drawing of a galaxy.
Brooks also shared his drawing: "这是我的画儿。我画了一只小兔子。" (This is my drawing. I've drawn a little bunny.)

( Read more... )

4. READ-ALOUD: ( Awakening the Dragon: the Dragon Boat Festival )

Plans for Playgroup #3:

( Plans for Playgroup #3 )

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08 • Recommendation for Homeschoolers & Parents of Preschoolers/Kindergartners

2019-07-04T09:30:58Z

For English reading & writing, I highly recommend Logic of English Foundations. The books, workbooks, sandpaper cards & game cards come in manuscript OR cursive. The game cards are print + manuscript OR print + cursive.

My six-year-old did Level A and 25% of Level B before kindergarten. He's most likely beyond Level B now, but we're going through it anyway this summer to make sure his foundation is solid. You won't need levels C & D unless you're homeschooling, because their kindergarten and first grade teachers will take over teaching them reading.

Foundations can be overwhelming if it’s your first time teaching kids reading/writing. Otherwise, it’s designed to be open-and-go. It’s pricey, but it teaches reading AND writing AND spelling. Both Brooks and I find the workbooks, games & activities engaging.

Here’s my low-budget recommendation: Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading. I vastly prefer it over Teach Your Child How to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, which has nonsensical/uninspiring sentences and passages. When using EZ Lessons with River, I ended up making my own sentences (mostly Curious George stories). If you're going to spend that much time and effort, you might as well go with Ordinary Parents' Guide instead.

☆ 08/100 moments in multiples of 50 words

Cathy Duffy reviews Foundations (Logic of English): One of her top picks

“Foundations is a little more advanced than some other programs if you begin with A and B at kindergarten level. […] A covers some first-grade level standards as well as those for kindergarten while B covers even a few standards for second grade.”

Cathy Duffy reviews The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading

“The only extras you need along with this book are flashcards and a magnetic board with alphabet letters or tiles.”

P.S. It might cost you $0 to use Ordinary Parent’s Guide because your library probably has a copy in circulation.

P.P.S. Although I highly recommend All About Spelling, I feel All About Reading is nowhere as comprehensive as Logic of English Foundations.

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Focus on the Character 去 🔍 (to) go

2019-07-03T02:23:52Z

We 'circled' the character 去 because both kids would sometimes mispronounce this character. And they both mispronounce it exactly the same way. They probably took one look at the pinyin qù and kept on wanting to pronounce it "u" like in chū (出). Thankfully other than 去, so far pinyin has not confused them.

( Whiteboard writing )

Q: 你去过PLACE吗？
A1: 我去过. Or
A2: 我没去过.

( 你去过PLACE吗 questions )

Q: 你去不去PLACE/ACTIVITY?
A1: 去. Or
A2: 不去.

- 你去不去游泳? etc.

Other than circling, I read two BetterChinese books* and have them read only the character 去 whenever it appears while I read the rest of the sentence. (I covered the pinyin qù with washi tape so they won't mispronounce it.) I wanted to glue the sound and the character together in their brain.

* 18. 我的家 and 29. 我去上学

Focus on Character Introspective:

- This time I did 'circling' individually with them. On the plus side, they focused more; on the flip side, the energy (and silliness) was not there.

- The questions were rapid fire so their answers were mostly rapid fire too. It was great to see them showing instantaneous, mostly-accurate comprehension during this session.

- I didn't let them write qù in their Chinese homework because I didn't want to reinforce their mispronunciation. I just quietly wrote qù in both their homework before turning it in to their teacher ;-)

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Circling #2 🏡♥ Playgroup Follow-up

2019-06-27T06:20:20Z

For playgroup #2's show-and-tell, Brooks shared "这是我的画儿。我画了一只小兔子。" (This is my drawing. I've drawn a little bunny.)

1. Start with the sentence "弟弟画了一只小兔子." ( Read more... )

Circling Introspective:

- Circling is a hit when it's the two of them together. Before this session, I did 'circling' individually with them with the character 去, but the energy (and silliness) was not there.

- The more outlandish/non-sensical my questions are, the more eager River was to answer "是!" and "对!"

I asked: "弟弟吃了一只小羊吗？"
River: "是!"
Brooks: *pretends to eat his drawing of a sheep*

- When there are two sentences being circled, I need to start with a comprehension check on the first sentence.
I assumed they've acquired the "这是___" sentence structure from circling #1, so I skipped circling it. In actuality, they still need a lot more input of "这是___" sentences.

[ PDF file on how circling works ]

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Chinese Handwriting & Composition 🖋 What Works and Doesn't Work

2019-06-27T04:01:35Z

Six-year-old's Handwriting		Eleven-year-old's Handwriting
What works for Brooks:	What doesn't work for Brooks:	What works for River:	What doesn't work for River:
- Tracing characters on paper with finger	- Tracing characters on paper with pencil	- Tracing characters on paper with finger AND pencil	-
- Writing small AND big characters	- Writing complicated characters in a small space	- Writing small characters	-
- Free-writing with a pencil/pen/marker	- Free-writing with an inkbrush not preferred	- Free-writing with an inkbrush	- Free-writing with pencil doesn't work as well as with inkbrush
- Providing a beautiful model to copy	-	Somewhat works: - Providing a beautiful model to copy	-
- Pointing out the ratio of the character components	-	- Pointing out the ratio of the character components	-
- Pointing out radicals and character components	-	- Pointing out radicals and character components	-

Six-year-old's Composition/Writing Skills		Eleven-year-old's Composition/Writing Skills
What works for Brooks:	What doesn't work for Brooks:	What works for River:	What doesn't work for River:
- Telling me what he wants to say, and I write it down for him	-	- Telling me what he wants to say, and I write it down for him	-
- Substituting pinyin for characters that he doesn't know	-	-	-
- Changing the words in sentences from books and songs to fit his life story	-	- Reading Chinese books and singing songs	-
-	-	- Coming up with fantastical/outlandish sentences and questions	-
- Circling	- He seems to need more input before coming up with his own questions.	- Asking him to come up with his own questions at the end of a TPRS Circling session	-

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First profile

2019-06-14T08:28:03Z

kirchara has been ~~obsessed with~~ passionate about reading ever since she was three and ~~obsessed with~~ passionate about writing ever since she was nine.

She is the mother of a five-year-old kindergartner who she extensively afterschools and a ten-month-old who is extremely mobile and very curious. She hopes her oldest will continue to retain his curiosity about the world, his penchant for problem-solving and his love for books through his school years.

The current purpose of this DW journal is to chronicle learning moments for her eldest (reading, writing, Mandarin, etc.), her youngest and herself.

Comments (the non-advertising, non-bot kind) are awesome. Subscribers and lurkers are both welcome.

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Tie-in Activities for My First Chinese Words (Better Chinese)

2019-06-13T16:21:56Z

(I'll edit this post when I find and/or think up more activity ideas.)

Adaptable to any of the books: Hanzi hopscotch (Chalk Academy).

(Adaptable) free Chinese character board game at Stickiemama.

Free printable PDF Mandarin flashcards at Semanda.com <-- Nice picture selections, but making your own flashcards allow you to customize them/make them more relevant to your kid(s)

My preferred flashcard configuration is:

[FRONT] Picture + Chinese character/word -->
[BACK] pinyin + English (when necessary) + fill-in-the-blank Chinese phrase/word

My First Chinese Words' 36 books: ( 1. I Love My Family 我爱我的家 )

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07 • Learning Mandarin with Odonata Leveled Readers (幼儿首100字 etc.)

2019-06-11T01:21:48Z

I bought Odonata Leveled Readers after reading Chalk Academy's review. The first four sets come with pronunciation CDs, which is a huge plus. The voice of the speaker is pleasant (not grating/cloying) and very clear.

Odonata readers teach 12-14 new characters at once instead of one new character at a time (SageBooks). Brooks was at first resistant and wanted to "read SageBooks everyday" instead. The second time we read Odonata Book 1.1, he realized that the book was not too much beyond him and started paying attention.

During repetitions within the book, I establish meaning and check comprehension by:

1) Reading the first sentence in Mandarin (repeating after the CD)
2) Translating the first sentence into English, pointing at the corresponding Chinese words as I say the English translation
3) Reading the second sentence in Mandarin
4) Point to the second sentence and ask, "英文怎么说" (How do you say it in English?)
5) If they hesitate, repeat steps 1-2. Point out words and tell them what it means.

I plan to go over each book in 3-5 sessions, depending on their comprehension (prior exposure/knowledge to characters and vocabulary, etc.)

We have been doing Mandarin six days out of the week. (They get a break from me on the day their teacher comes.) We rotate between BetterChinese (8-page picture books), SageBooks (Almost done with Book 1.1), and Odonata as I see appropriate. We’ve done one TPRS circling so far. Sometimes I read a Chinese picture book to them instead. Sometimes we go over flashcards, sing/learn a Chinese song/poem, or do a game/activity in Chinese. I usually save the game/activity for a "fun" break/ending when Brooks is getting antsy or uncooperative.

When Brooks is off doing his own thing (sometimes Chinese-related, sometimes hula-hooping a few meters away while listening), I focus on River who needs more Chinese repetitions anyway. Thankfully, River still doesn't find the books childish*.

* I told him that my reading level is at Chinese children's books (really a bit worse because I probably only have ~20% of a native Chinese kid's vocabulary).

☆ 07/100 moments in multiples of 50 words

My tentative lesson map:

( Read more... )

List of the 40 book titles: ( Read more... )

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Chinese Playgroup #1 🏡♥

2019-06-03T09:22:10Z

Last Saturday was our first Chinese playgroup. We're two* semi-fluent families with a fifth grader, a fourth grader, a second grader and a kindergartner. The kids stayed engaged for 40+ minutes; all in all, it went well.

We started with the song 我的朋友在哪里 (Where is My Friend?). I've taught this song (first verse only) to two different co-op preschool groups; it's repetitive and very easy to learn. Plus, "一二三四五六七" is one of the first things kids learn when they learn Chinese.

( 我的朋友在哪里 )

Next, we introduced ourselves (even though we already know one another) with a simple "我叫NAME. 我AGE岁."

Afterward, we had a super brief show-and-tell where the kids bring an item from home and say "这是OBJECT." ( Show and tell )

Next, we did a hand & foot radical activity. I showed them what 手 and 足 look like as radicals. I haven't set up the activity yet, so V led the group while I put up post-its at random on the wall. She asked them what their favorite colors are.

( Radical activity )

* I was inspired by this MultilingualChildren article that says, "Fewer than three is not really a group, but go ahead and start anyhow!"

Plans for next playgroup, which happens to be on the weekend of Dragon Boat Festival:

( Plans for Playgroup #2 )

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Circling #1 🏡♥ Playgroup Follow-up

2019-06-02T09:04:58Z

CIRCLING* -- DONE 6/8/19

~~Make a gray mouse out of play doh/clay~~ Draw a mouse on the whiteboard. Have the (computing) mouse ready.

1. Start with the sentence "这是哥哥的鼠标 (shǔ biāo)." ( Read more... )

2. At random, ask these questions:
- YES question: "这是哥哥的鼠标吗?"

- NO question:
"这是哥哥的老鼠吗?"
"这是弟弟的鼠标吗?"

- OR question: "这是哥哥还是弟弟的鼠标?"

- 5Wh + H question:
"这是谁的鼠标?"
"这是什么?"

- etc. following their interest and attention span

I used these index cards at random to prompt myself: ( Read more... )

Circling Introspective:

- They are (thankfully) easily amused. They would sometimes intentionally give the wrong answer, pick up my shoe and say, "这是妈妈的老鼠," etc.

- River said he did not hear every single thing that I said because he got distracted, but he did understand everything he did hear. And that's the main goal of circling/TPRS**: comprehensible input.

- When I asked Brooks, "英文怎么说," he answered "big brother's computer mouse" instead of "This is big brother's computer mouse." Either he hasn't acquired that "这是" = "This is," or he usually doesn't translate Mandarin into English in his head.

* Here's a pdf from Terry Waltz's website that tells you how circling works.

** TPRS = Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling

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咏鹅 💧 Ode to Goose

2019-05-30T10:10:54Z

鹅，鹅，鹅，
é ，é ，é ，
曲项向天歌。
qǔ xiàng xiàng tiān gē 。
白毛浮绿水，
bái máo fú lǜ shuǐ ，
红掌拨清波。
hóng zhǎng bō qīng bō 。

（唐）骆宾王
(Táng) Luò Bīn wáng

Did you know that Luo Binwang (640-684, Tang poet) wrote "Ode to Goose" when he was seven years old?

This is poem #1 in our 300 Tang Poems for Children book. 静夜思 (床前明月光 etc.) is poem #76.

Written in Tonally Orthographic Pinyin here on Instagram.

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我的朋友在哪里 ✿ Where is My Friend?

2019-05-08T06:13:22Z

一二三四五六七
yí èr sān sì wǔ liù qī

我的朋友在哪里
wǒ de péng yǒu zài nǎ lǐ

在这里在这里
zài zhè lǐ zài zhè lǐ

我的朋友在这里
wǒ de péng yǒu zài zhè lǐ

啦啦啦啦真欢喜
la la la la zhēn huān xǐ

同唱歌来同游戏
tóng chàng gē lái tóng yóu xì

笑嘻嘻多甜蜜
xiào xī xī duō tián mì

我的朋友就是你
wǒ de péng yǒu jiù shì nǐ

( Traditional )

This was the first Mandarin song that Brooks sang (I taught him and his preschool class the first refrain of the song). He learned his second Mandarin song, 一闪一闪亮晶晶 ☆ Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, from Chinese preschool. For awhile we always sang Twinkle in Mandarin when we do body staff.

ETA 7/19/19: ASL gestures that you can use when singing this song:
- 我的 (My)
- 朋友 (Friend)
- 在哪里 (Where)
- 在这里 (Here/At THIS place)

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How I Fell into Teaching My Kids Mandarin (and Learn to Love It)

2019-05-07T02:08:33Z

Last year I fell into Chinese* fandom via random YouTube algorithm. I ended up chatting with fellow fans online (many of them overseas Chinese with varying degrees of fluency), when I came to a sudden realization:

If I don't teach my kids Chinese culture, nobody else will.

Prior to this, I was resigned to River and Brooks** growing up as Asian Americans who are only Asians in the broadest brushstrokes of the term. We're not a traditional Chinese family, I'm not fluent in Mandarin, and my husband can’t even write his own Chinese name. It's an uphill battle teaching them Bahasa Indonesia; how much harder would teaching them Mandarin be?

( In a way, I see the language as secondary to the culture. )

* It was a Chinese supernatural show that's so bad it cycles back to being great. All the budget goes into the two main characters and the opening theme song, and nothing else.

** Their online handles, not their rl names

*** River knows me well enough to know that complaining is useless.

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So I caved in and opened a Facebook account.

2019-05-05T21:30:12Z

For years I refused to--partly to avoid drama, and partly out of nostalgia for the good ol' LiveJournal days.

Now here I am, more than a decade later. I'll be chronicling my kids' journey as they learn Mandarin, and my own journey as I teach them Mandarin. (There will be some Bahasa Indonesia thrown in too.)

Posts will also be crossposted here because I dislike how Facebook does links.

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